{{Article summary text|This document outlines the procedure needed to set up AutoFS, a package that provides support for automounting removable media or network shares when they are inserted or accessed.}}

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{{Article summary end}}

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This document outlines the procedure needed to set up AutoFS, a package that provides support for automounting removable media or network shares when they are inserted or accessed.

This document outlines the procedure needed to set up AutoFS, a package that provides support for automounting removable media or network shares when they are inserted or accessed.

== Installation ==

== Installation ==

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*Install the {{Pkg|autofs}} package:

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# pacman -S autofs

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*Load the {{ic|autofs4}} module as root:

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[[Install]] the {{Pkg|autofs}} package.

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# modprobe autofs4

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{{Note|You no longer need to load {{ic|autofs4}} module.}}

== Configuration ==

== Configuration ==

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AutoFS uses template files for configuration which are located in {{ic|/etc/autofs}} The main template is called {{ic|auto.master}}, which can point to one or more other templates for specific media types.

AutoFS uses template files for configuration which are located in {{ic|/etc/autofs}} The main template is called {{ic|auto.master}}, which can point to one or more other templates for specific media types.

Line 29:

Line 28:

{{hc|/etc/autofs/auto.master|2=

{{hc|/etc/autofs/auto.master|2=

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/media/misc /etc/autofs/auto.misc --timeout=5 --ghost

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/media/misc /etc/autofs/auto.misc --timeout=5

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/media/net /etc/autofs/auto.net --timeout=60 --ghost

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/media/net /etc/autofs/auto.net --timeout=60

}}

}}

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{{Note|Make sure there is an empty line on the end of template files (press {{Keypress|ENTER}} after last word). If there is no correct EOF line, the AutoFS daemon won't properly load.}}

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{{Note|Make sure there is an empty line on the end of template files (press {{ic|ENTER}} after last word). If there is no correct EOF (end of file) line, the AutoFS daemon will not properly load.}}

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The optional parameter {{ic|timeout}} sets the amount of seconds after which to unmount directories. The parameter {{ic|ghost}} determines that configured mounts will always be shown, instead of only when they are inserted and accessed. This can be useful since you won't have to remember or guess the names of removable media and network shares.

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The optional parameter {{ic|timeout}} sets the amount of seconds after which to unmount directories.

The base directory will be created if it does not exist on your system. The base directory will be mounted on to load the dynamically loaded media, which means any content in the base directory will not be accessible while autofs is on. This procedure is however non-destructive, so if you accidentally automount into a live directory you can just change the location in {{ic|auto.master}} and restart AutoFS to regain the original contents.

The base directory will be created if it does not exist on your system. The base directory will be mounted on to load the dynamically loaded media, which means any content in the base directory will not be accessible while autofs is on. This procedure is however non-destructive, so if you accidentally automount into a live directory you can just change the location in {{ic|auto.master}} and restart AutoFS to regain the original contents.

{{Note|This can cause problems with resources getting locked if the connection to the share is lost. When trying to access the folder, programs will get locked into waiting for a response, and either the connection has to be restored or the process has to be forcibly killed before unmounting is possible. To mitigate this, only use if you will always be connected to the share, and don't use your home folder or other commonly used folders lest your file browser reads ahead into the disconnected folder}}

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{{Note|This can cause problems with resources getting locked if the connection to the share is lost. When trying to access the folder, programs will get locked into waiting for a response, and either the connection has to be restored or the process has to be forcibly killed before unmounting is possible. To mitigate this, only use if you will always be connected to the share, and do not use your home folder or other commonly used folders lest your file browser reads ahead into the disconnected folder}}

* Open the file {{ic|/etc/nsswitch.conf}} and add an entry for automount:

* Open the file {{ic|/etc/nsswitch.conf}} and add an entry for automount:

automount: files

automount: files

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* When you are done configuring your templates (see below), launch the AutoFS daemon as root:

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* When you are done configuring your templates (see below), launch the AutoFS daemon as root by [[enabling]] and starting the {{ic|autofs.service}}.

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# systemctl start autofs

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To start the daemon on boot:

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# systemctl enable autofs

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And add the {{ic|autofs4}} [[Systemd#Kernel_modules|kernel module]] to {{ic|/etc/modules-load.d/}}

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{{hc|/etc/modules-load.d/autofs.conf|

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# Load autofs4 at boot

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autofs4}}

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Devices are now automatically mounted when they are accessed, they will remain mounted as long as you access them.

Devices are now automatically mounted when they are accessed, they will remain mounted as long as you access them.

=== Removable media ===

=== Removable media ===

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* Open {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.misc}} to add, remove or edit miscellaneous devices. For instance:

* Open {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.misc}} to add, remove or edit miscellaneous devices. For instance:

Line 83:

Line 74:

If you have a CD/DVD combo-drive you can change the {{ic|cdrom}} line with {{ic|-fstype<nowiki>=</nowiki>auto}} to have the media type autodetected.

If you have a CD/DVD combo-drive you can change the {{ic|cdrom}} line with {{ic|-fstype<nowiki>=</nowiki>auto}} to have the media type autodetected.

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=== NFS Network mounts ===

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=== NFS network mounts ===

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AutoFS provides a new way of automatically discovering and mounting [[NFS]]-shares on remote servers (the AutoFS network template in {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.net}} has been removed in autofs5). To enable automagic discovery and mounting of network shares from all accessible servers without any further configuration, you'll need to add the following to the {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.master}} file:

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{{Style|"New" compared to what? In what way?}}

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AutoFS provides a new way of automatically discovering and mounting [[NFS]]-shares on remote servers (the AutoFS network template in {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.net}} has been removed in autofs5). To enable automatic discovery and mounting of network shares from all accessible servers without any further configuration, you will need to add the following to the {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.master}} file:

/net -hosts --timeout=60

/net -hosts --timeout=60

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'''Each host name needs to be resolveable, e.g. the name an IP address in {{ic|/etc/hosts}} or via [[Wikipedia:Domain_Name_System|DNS]] and please make sure you have at least {{Pkg|nfs-common}} installed and working.'''

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'''Each host name needs to be resolveable, e.g. the name an IP address in {{ic|/etc/hosts}} or via [[Wikipedia:Domain_Name_System|DNS]] and please make sure you have {{Pkg|nfs-utils}} installed and working. You also have to enable RPC (systemctl start|enable rpcbind) to browse shared Folders.'''

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For instance, if you have a remote server ''fileserver'' with an NFS share named ''/home/share'', you can just access the share by typing:

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For instance, if you have a remote server ''fileserver'' (the name of the directory is the hostname of the server) with an NFS share named ''/home/share'', you can just access the share by typing:

# cd /net/fileserver/home/share

# cd /net/fileserver/home/share

Line 102:

Line 95:

Replacing ''<servername>'' with the name of your own server.

Replacing ''<servername>'' with the name of your own server.

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An alternative Way is to use the automount-service from Systemd, see [[NFS#Mount using /etc/fstab with systemd|NFS with systemd-automount]]

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==== Manual NFS configuration ====

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To mount a NFS share on server_name called /srv/shared_dir to another computer named client_pc at location /mnt/foo, edit auto.master and create a configuration file for the share (auto.server_name):

The Arch package does not provide any [[Samba]] or CIFS templates/scripts (23.07.2009), but the following should work for single shares:

The Arch package does not provide any [[Samba]] or CIFS templates/scripts (23.07.2009), but the following should work for single shares:

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add the following to {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.master}}

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Add the following to {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.master}}:

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/media/[my_server] /etc/autofs/auto.[my_server]

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/media/[my_server] /etc/autofs/auto.[my_server] --timeout=60 --ghost

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and then create a file {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.[my_server]}}

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where {{ic|--timeout}} defines how many seconds to wait before the file system is unmounted. The {{ic|--ghost}} option creates empty folders for each mount-point in the file in order to prevent timeouts, if a network share cannot be contacted.

{{Note|Escape &#36;, and other characters, with a backslash when neccessary.}}

{{Note|Escape &#36;, and other characters, with a backslash when neccessary.}}

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=== FTP and SSH (with Fuse) ===

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=== FTP and SSH (with FUSE) ===

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Remote FTP and [[SSH]] servers can be accessed seamlessly with AutoFS using [[Wikipedia:FUSE|FUSE]], a virtual file system layer.

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Remote FTP and [[SSH]] servers can be accessed seamlessly with AutoFS using [[Wikipedia:Filesystem in Userspace|FUSE]], a virtual file system layer.

==== Remote FTP ====

==== Remote FTP ====

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First, install the {{Pkg|curlftpfs}} package from the Community repository:

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# pacman -S curlftpfs

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First, install the {{Pkg|curlftpfs}} package.

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Load the '''fuse''' module:

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Load the {{ic|fuse}} module:

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# modprobe fuse

# modprobe fuse

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Add fuse to the {{ic|MODULES}} array in {{ic|/etc/rc.conf}} to load it on each system boot.

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Create a {{ic|/etc/modules-load.d/fuse.conf}} file containg {{ic|fuse}} to load it on each system boot.

Next, add a new entry for FTP servers in {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.master}}:

Next, add a new entry for FTP servers in {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.master}}:

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/media/ftp /etc/autofs/auto.ftp --timeout=60 --ghost

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/media/ftp /etc/autofs/auto.ftp --timeout=60

Create the file {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.ftp}} and add a server using the {{ic|ftp://myuser:mypassword@host:port/path}} format:

Create the file {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.ftp}} and add a server using the {{ic|ftp://myuser:mypassword@host:port/path}} format:

Line 175:

Line 175:

==== Remote SSH ====

==== Remote SSH ====

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These are basic instructions to access a remote filesystem over [[SSH]] with AutoFS.

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{{Note|The example below does not use an ssh-passphrase to simplify the installation procedure, please note that this may be a security risk in case your local system gets compromised.}}

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{{Accuracy|1=All the ''ssh*'' commands should be executed as the same user, as before [https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Autofs&diff=prev&oldid=318335 this edit]. It should not matter if it is root or unprivileged.}}

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These are basic instructions to access a remote filesystem over [[SSH]] with AutoFS.

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Install the {{Pkg|sshfs}} package from the Extra repository:

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{{Note|Password-less authentication may be convenient but also has security implications. See [[Using SSH Keys|SSH keypair]] for more details}}

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# pacman -S sshfs

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Install the {{Pkg|sshfs}} package.

Load the {{ic|fuse}} module:

Load the {{ic|fuse}} module:

Line 187:

Line 188:

# modprobe fuse

# modprobe fuse

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Add fuse to the {{ic|MODULES}} array in {{ic|/etc/rc.conf}} to load it on each system boot:

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Create a {{ic|/etc/modules-load.d/fuse.conf}} file containg {{ic|fuse}} to load it on each system boot if you have not one yet.

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Install OpenSSH:

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Install {{Pkg|openssh}}.

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# pacman -S openssh

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Generate an [[Using SSH Keys|SSH keypair]]:

Generate an [[Using SSH Keys|SSH keypair]]:

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# ssh-keygen -t dsa

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$ ssh-keygen

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When the generator ask for a passphrase, just press {{Keypress|ENTER}}. Using SSH keys without a passphrase is less secure, yet running AutoFS together with passphrases poses some additional difficulties which are not (yet) covered in this article.

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When the generator ask for a passphrase, just press {{ic|ENTER}}. Using SSH keys without a passphrase is less secure, yet running AutoFS together with passphrases poses some additional difficulties which are not (yet) covered in this article.

Next, copy the public key to the remote SSH server:

Next, copy the public key to the remote SSH server:

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# ssh-copy-id -i /home/username/.ssh/id_dsa.pub username@remotehost

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$ ssh-copy-id username@remotehost

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See that you can login to the remote server without entering a password:

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'''As root''', see that you can login to the remote server without entering a password:

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# sudo ssh -i /home/username/.ssh/id_dsa username@remotehost

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# ssh username@remotehost

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{{Note|The above command is needed to add the remote server to the root's list of {{ic|known_hosts}}. Alternatively, hosts can be added to {{ic|/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts}}.}}

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{{Note|This will add the remote server to root's list of {{ic|known_hosts}}. Hosts can be also be manually added to {{ic|/etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts}}.}}

After a restart your SSH server should be accessible through {{ic|/media/ssh/servername}}.

After a restart your SSH server should be accessible through {{ic|/media/ssh/servername}}.

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== MTP ==

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Media Transfer Protocol ([[MTP]]) is used in some Android devices.

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Install the {{Pkg|mtpfs}} package.

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Create a new entry for MTP Device in {{ic|/etc/autofs/auto.misc}}:

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android -fstype=fuse,allow_other,umask=000 :mtpfs

== Troubleshooting and tweaks ==

== Troubleshooting and tweaks ==

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This section contains a few solutions for common issues with AutoFS.

This section contains a few solutions for common issues with AutoFS.

Line 230:

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=== Optional parameters ===

=== Optional parameters ===

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You can set parameters like {{ic|timeout}} systemwide for all AutoFS media in {{ic|/etc/conf.d/autofs}}:

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* Open the {{ic|/etc/conf.d/autofs}} file and edit the {{ic|daemonoptions}} line:

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You can set parameters like {{ic|timeout}} systemwide for all AutoFS media in {{ic|/etc/default/autofs}}:

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daemonoptions='--timeout=5'

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* To enable logging (default is no logging at all), add {{ic|--verbose}} to the {{ic|daemonoptions}} line in {{ic|/etc/conf.d/autofs}} e.g.:

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* Open the {{ic|/etc/default/autofs}} file and edit the {{ic|OPTIONS}} line:

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daemonoptions='--verbose --timeout=5'

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OPTIONS='--timeout=5'

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After restarting the {{ic|autofs}} daemon, verbose output is visible in {{ic|/var/log/daemon.log}}.

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* To enable logging (default is no logging at all), uncomment and add {{ic|--verbose}} to the {{ic|OPTIONS}} line in {{ic|/etc/default/autofs}} e.g.:

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OPTIONS='--verbose --timeout=5'

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After restarting the {{ic|autofs}} daemon, verbose output is visible in {{ic|systemctl status}} or in {{ic|journalctl}}.

=== Identify multiple devices ===

=== Identify multiple devices ===

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If you use multiple USB drives/sticks and want to easily tell them apart, you can use AutoFS to set up the mount points and [[Udev]] to create distinct names for your USB drives. See [[Map Custom Device Entries with udev]] for instructions on setting up Udev rules.

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If you use multiple USB drives/sticks and want to easily tell them apart, you can use AutoFS to set up the mount points and [[Udev]] to create distinct names for your USB drives. See [[udev#Setting static device names]] for instructions on setting up Udev rules.

=== AutoFS permissions ===

=== AutoFS permissions ===

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If AutoFS isn't working for you, make sure that the permissions of the templates files are correct, otherwise AutoFS will not start. This may happen if you backed up your configuration files in a manner which did not preserve file modes. Here are what the modes should be on the configuration files:

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If AutoFS is not working for you, make sure that the permissions of the templates files are correct, otherwise AutoFS will not start. This may happen if you backed up your configuration files in a manner which did not preserve file modes. Here are what the modes should be on the configuration files:

*0644 - /etc/autofs/auto.master

*0644 - /etc/autofs/auto.master

Line 251:

Line 264:

*0644 - /etc/conf.d/autofs

*0644 - /etc/conf.d/autofs

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In general, scripts (like previous {{ic|auto.net}}) should have executable ({{ic|chown a+x filename}}) bits set and lists of mounts shouldn't.

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In general, scripts (like previous {{ic|auto.net}}) should have executable ({{ic|chmod a+x filename}}) bits set and lists of mounts should not.

If you are getting errors in {{ic|/var/log/daemon.log}} similar to this, you have a permissions problem:

If you are getting errors in {{ic|/var/log/daemon.log}} similar to this, you have a permissions problem:

Installation

Configuration

AutoFS uses template files for configuration which are located in /etc/autofs The main template is called auto.master, which can point to one or more other templates for specific media types.

Open the file /etc/autofs/auto.master with your favorite editor, you will see something similar to this:

/etc/autofs/auto.master

#/media /etc/autofs/auto.media

The first value on each line determines the base directory under which all the media in a template are mounted, the second value is which template to use. The default base path is /media, but you can change this to any other location you prefer. For instance:

Note: Make sure there is an empty line on the end of template files (press ENTER after last word). If there is no correct EOF (end of file) line, the AutoFS daemon will not properly load.

The optional parameter timeout sets the amount of seconds after which to unmount directories.

The base directory will be created if it does not exist on your system. The base directory will be mounted on to load the dynamically loaded media, which means any content in the base directory will not be accessible while autofs is on. This procedure is however non-destructive, so if you accidentally automount into a live directory you can just change the location in auto.master and restart AutoFS to regain the original contents.

If you still want to automount to a target non-empty directory and want to have the original files available even after the dynamically loaded directories are mounted, you can use autofs to mount them to another directory (e.g. /var/autofs/net) and create soft links.

# ln -s /var/autofs/net/share_name /media/share_name

Alternatively, you can have autofs mount your media to a specific folder, rather than inside a common folder.

Note: This can cause problems with resources getting locked if the connection to the share is lost. When trying to access the folder, programs will get locked into waiting for a response, and either the connection has to be restored or the process has to be forcibly killed before unmounting is possible. To mitigate this, only use if you will always be connected to the share, and do not use your home folder or other commonly used folders lest your file browser reads ahead into the disconnected folder

Open the file /etc/nsswitch.conf and add an entry for automount:

automount: files

When you are done configuring your templates (see below), launch the AutoFS daemon as root by enabling and starting the autofs.service.

Devices are now automatically mounted when they are accessed, they will remain mounted as long as you access them.

Removable media

Open /etc/autofs/auto.misc to add, remove or edit miscellaneous devices. For instance:

NFS network mounts

Reason: "New" compared to what? In what way? (Discuss in Talk:Autofs#)

AutoFS provides a new way of automatically discovering and mounting NFS-shares on remote servers (the AutoFS network template in /etc/autofs/auto.net has been removed in autofs5). To enable automatic discovery and mounting of network shares from all accessible servers without any further configuration, you will need to add the following to the /etc/autofs/auto.master file:

/net -hosts --timeout=60

Each host name needs to be resolveable, e.g. the name an IP address in /etc/hosts or via DNS and please make sure you have nfs-utils installed and working. You also have to enable RPC (systemctl start|enable rpcbind) to browse shared Folders.

For instance, if you have a remote server fileserver (the name of the directory is the hostname of the server) with an NFS share named /home/share, you can just access the share by typing:

# cd /net/fileserver/home/share

Note: Please note that ghosting, i.e. automatically creating directory placeholders before mounting shares is enabled by default, although AutoFS installation notes claim to remove that option from /etc/conf.d/autofs in order to start the AutoFS daemon.

The -hosts option uses a similar mechanism as the showmount command to detect remote shares. You can see the exported shares by typing:

Manual NFS configuration

To mount a NFS share on server_name called /srv/shared_dir to another computer named client_pc at location /mnt/foo, edit auto.master and create a configuration file for the share (auto.server_name):

/etc/autofs/auto.master

/mnt /etc/autofs/auto.server_name --timeout 60

/etc/autofs/auto.server_name

foo -rw,soft,intr,rsize=8192,wsize=8192 server_name:/srv/shared_dir

Samba

The Arch package does not provide any Samba or CIFS templates/scripts (23.07.2009), but the following should work for single shares:

Add the following to /etc/autofs/auto.master:

/media/[my_server] /etc/autofs/auto.[my_server] --timeout=60 --ghost

where --timeout defines how many seconds to wait before the file system is unmounted. The --ghost option creates empty folders for each mount-point in the file in order to prevent timeouts, if a network share cannot be contacted.

Note: Your passwords are plainly visible for anyone that can run df (only for mounted servers) or view the file /etc/autofs/auto.ftp.

If you want slightly more security you can create the file ~root/.netrc and add the passwords there.
Passwords are still plain text, but you can have mode 600, and df command will not show them (mounted or not).
This method is also less sensitive to special characters (that else must be escaped) in the passwords. The format is:

machine remoteserver
login myuser
password mypassword

The line in /etc/autofs/auto.ftp looks like this without user and password:

servername -fstype=curl,allow_other :ftp\://remoteserver

Create the file /sbin/mount.curl with this code:

/sbin/mount.curl

#! /bin/sh
curlftpfs $1 $2 -o $4,disable_eprt

Create the file /sbin/umount.curl with this code:

/sbin/umount.curl

#! /bin/sh
fusermount -u $1

Set the permissions for both files:

# chmod 755 /sbin/mount.curl
# chmod 755 /sbin/umount.curl

After a restart your new FTP server should be accessible through /media/ftp/servername.

Remote SSH

The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.

Reason: All the ssh* commands should be executed as the same user, as before this edit. It should not matter if it is root or unprivileged. (Discuss in Talk:Autofs#)

These are basic instructions to access a remote filesystem over SSH with AutoFS.

Note: Password-less authentication may be convenient but also has security implications. See SSH keypair for more details

When the generator ask for a passphrase, just press ENTER. Using SSH keys without a passphrase is less secure, yet running AutoFS together with passphrases poses some additional difficulties which are not (yet) covered in this article.

Next, copy the public key to the remote SSH server:

$ ssh-copy-id username@remotehost

As root, see that you can login to the remote server without entering a password:

# ssh username@remotehost

Note: This will add the remote server to root's list of known_hosts. Hosts can be also be manually added to /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts.

On earlier versions of NIS (before 5.0.4), you should add nis to /etc/nsswitch.conf:

automount: files nis

Optional parameters

You can set parameters like timeout systemwide for all AutoFS media in /etc/default/autofs:

Open the /etc/default/autofs file and edit the OPTIONS line:

OPTIONS='--timeout=5'

To enable logging (default is no logging at all), uncomment and add --verbose to the OPTIONS line in /etc/default/autofs e.g.:

OPTIONS='--verbose --timeout=5'

After restarting the autofs daemon, verbose output is visible in systemctl status or in journalctl.

Identify multiple devices

If you use multiple USB drives/sticks and want to easily tell them apart, you can use AutoFS to set up the mount points and Udev to create distinct names for your USB drives. See udev#Setting static device names for instructions on setting up Udev rules.

AutoFS permissions

If AutoFS is not working for you, make sure that the permissions of the templates files are correct, otherwise AutoFS will not start. This may happen if you backed up your configuration files in a manner which did not preserve file modes. Here are what the modes should be on the configuration files:

0644 - /etc/autofs/auto.master

0644 - /etc/autofs/auto.media

0644 - /etc/autofs/auto.misc

0644 - /etc/conf.d/autofs

In general, scripts (like previous auto.net) should have executable (chmod a+x filename) bits set and lists of mounts should not.

If you are getting errors in /var/log/daemon.log similar to this, you have a permissions problem: